This year some public sector workers will receive pay rises. Criminal barristers and solicitors, meanwhile, have been told to expect pay cuts of 17.5% for less serious cases and 30% for very high cost cases (VHCCs).
For those at the junior end of the profession, who are already scraping by on little more than the minimum wage, the government’s proposed reduction in legal aid income could mean game over — unless they have access to private funds to sustain them.
At which point the criminal Bar would become a “rich man’s job” and legal aid law firms would have to dramatically increase in size — and take advantage of economies of scale — in order to survive, these Bristol-based lawyers explain in a video they made last week.
The chart above was compiled for Legal Cheek by Blackfriars Chambers criminal barrister Jon Mack. There is more from Mack about this morning’s strike — which we’ll be covering throughout the day — on his excellent blog.